India’s ASTRA BVRAAM Testfired From IAF Flanker

DRDO STATEMENT: India’s first indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Air-to-Air missile “ASTRA was successfully test fired by the Indian Air Force on May 04, 2014 from a Naval range in the western sector meeting all the mission objectives. The air-launch was captured by side and forward looking high speed cameras and the separation was exactly as per the simulation. ASTRA is India’s first BVR Air-to-Air Missile indigenously designed and developed by DRDO, possessing high Single Shot Kill Probability (SSKP) making it highly reliable. Astra is an all aspect, all weather missile with active Radar terminal guidance, excellent ECCM features, smokeless propulsion and process improved effectiveness in multi-target scenario making it a highly advanced, state-of the-art missile.

The Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri, Secretary Deptt of Defence R&D and DG, DRDO, Shri Avinash Chander congratulating the team for their high competence and tenacity to make such an event happen seamlessly said “Astra’s successful launch from the Su30 combat aircraft is a major step in missile aircraft integration. Extensive flight testing that has preceded today’s air launch was indeed a joint effort of DRDO and IAF. This will be followed by launch against actual target shortly. Many more trials are planned and will be conducted to clear the launch envelope. Weapon integration with ‘Tejas’ Light Combat Aircraft will also be done in the near future.”

Dr. V.G. Sekaran, Director General (MSS) who chaired the Flight Readiness Review Committee along with Shri. S Som, Director, DRDL, Shri. P Venugopalan, former Director, DRDL among others, said “This is one of the proud moments for DRDO and the entire country.” Dr. K Tamilmani, Director General (Aeronautics) who has overlooked the entire flight safety in the program said that quality of integration and performance is of high standards and there was no doubt in the success of the launch. He further added that this is the beginning of the phase for demonstration of launch over a wide air-launch envelope. The Project Director Dr. S. Venugopal said that “the Air Launch of ASTRA was perfect in all respect and is a culmination of years of effort by a very dedicated and competent team of the Missile Complex, Hyderabad, CEMILAC and Indian Air Force. HAL carried out the modification in Su-30 along with IAF specialists, and many Indian industries have an important and enabling role in the production of reliable avionics, propulsion system, materials, airframe and software passing stringent airworthiness requirements for the missile.” The missiles have undergone rigorous testing on Su30 in the captive mode for avionics integration and Seeker evaluation in 2013. The project has thus reached the final stage of testing and evaluation, and the Mk-II variant with higher range capability is also planned to be tested by the end of 2014.

17 Comments

Anonymous

A good FIRST step. Many miles to go, as a wise man said. We must know how much to slap our backs -the real test on a manoeuvring target would be the proof of the pudding. Best of luck DRDO. Now, pl stick to timelines and advertised performance

Congrats to DRDO, IAF and others. Since the missile extensively tested against aerial targets from the ground launchers, I don't think so any major technical hurdles. Hoping faster service entry and improved versions follows.

Anonymous

NSR says – This is truly a great milestone for India…Once MK-1 and MK-2 are developed and tested, then they can use them on all of the aircraft…The seeker technology will significantly enable/improve Akash as it can hit the incoming threats from body to body…India should not buy Rafale and instead spend all of that money on producing LCA/Tejas, missiles, avionics, engines, seekers, etc…This will develop Indian manufacturing and create high paying jobs for next 50 years for Indians instead of French…Congratulations to DRDO/IAF…

Prodyut

If I remember aright the Americans fired 1000 Sidewinders- all from dead astern-and then used some hairy interpolation techniques to decide the Pk. The British fired perhaps less than fifty before releasing the Fireflash- or was it the Firestreak? in service. We know how the 'winders behaved .Mercifully the Fireflash was never fired "in anger" Whichever way the DRDO goes I do wish they would hurry up a bit.

Anonymous

Behind the push by the UPA Government in its dying days to install Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next COAS, is the powerful Arms Lobby which has billions of dollars at stake. The alleged ‘Line of Succession’ which was put in place is now entering its final phase. When this was challenged in the Supreme Court of India in a bid to uphold the institutional integrity of the Armed Forces, the petition was dismissed as being communal, mainly since the three main people in the line of fire were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Army chief JJ Singh and the present COAS – General Bikram Singh!

With the BJP’s Dr Subramanian Swamy’s plea to stop the UPA from pre-poning the next Army chiefs appointment being forwarded by the President to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the UPA spin doctors are at it again, trying to trivialize facts and spread lies which fail to stand up to the most basic scrutiny.

Sometimes the truth is a bitter pill to swallow especially when we as a nation are betrayed by our own. All the moral grandstanding comes to nought when the Army’s top two officers, under the UPA and PMO’s protective shield, stand accused of some of the most heinous crimes. Worse, this blatant alleged acts weaken the very purpose of AFSPA, which is meant to protect our soldiers from false cases, and not something to be used by the top brass in pursuing an agenda of their own. Will the former Army chief, General VK Singh and his band of supporters, ridiculed and attacked by the spin doctors of the UPA, be vindicated after all?

The MoD and the government are already lying through their teeth. Lt Gen Ravi Dastane’s hearing has been curiously shifted from May 2 to September, rendering his case meaningless. The Jorhat incident is being brushed aside as being a case of a junior NCO stealing a cell phone, while Major T Kiran, the whistleblower in the Manipur killings is under virtual arrest with the Army desperately trying to get him to retract his statement.

Swamy Letter to Prez on Army Chief

(M G Devasahayam was an IAS Officer and holds post-graduate degree in Economics. Previous to the IAS he served in the Indian army and has participated in the 1965 Indo-Pak war and counter-insurgency operations in Nagaland. He is also a Guest Blogger with Canary Trap. The opinions expressed by the author and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Canary Trap or any employee thereof)

Anonymous

To jayanta bordoloi and others…NSR says..It is just the beginning and these missiles are tad heavy so SU-30MKI is the perfect platform to start testing…Astra MK-1 and MK-2 will go through simple test fires to see if they can reach a designated point through various maneuvers to validate missile flight control systems…LCA/Tejas fired Russian short range AAM recently and it will fire Israel and Russian BVRAAMs soon for FOC..It needs lot of fine tuning as it is an experimental aircraft…In time, Tejas MKII will become a very fine and formidable fighter bomber…The only thing India needs to do is to cancel Rafale and go on war footing to develop and manufacture Tejas, missiles, etc and develop the infrastructure and jobs in India…

Anonymous

@Anon hahaha why does a country that never had a historic antecedent or future thinks its an equal to china a 2000 year culture. btw congrats on your A2A missile test in the year 2500 AD oh ya its called al-chutiya

Anonymous

NSR says to the Bharat Rakshak bloggers and editors…The comments should be screened for Pakistani and Chinese trolls and keep them off and allow only posts that are fair and objective…Some of the anonymous commenters are pure haters of India…